In the increasingly distant past, the National Rifle Association (NRA) largely advocated for policies related to hunting and marksmanship, but today its leaders are defined by unsavory conduct and the advancement of extreme, anti-government ideology. While the NRA innocuously describes itself as the “nation’s oldest civil rights organization,” this portrayal serves only as a smokescreen to mask the fact that the organization is a rogues gallery of the most odious voices in the contemporary Conservative Movement.

One only has to look to the NRA’s leadership to discover that the organization is operated by a group of individuals who promote racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-immigrant animus, religious bigotry, anti-environmentalism, and insurrectionism. Some active NRA board members have even had close relationships with brutal dictators in outside nations. Put simply, members of the NRA leadership no longer make for polite company.

Moreover, while superficially bipartisan, the NRA is closely aligned with the most extreme elements in the Republican Party and has brought a number of the GOP’s most influential operatives into positions of power within the organization. The GOP and NRA are now locked in a symbiotic relationship where Republican legislators advance the NRA’s extreme agenda while the NRA musters its hardcore supporters to serve as attack dogs for a wide range of conservative causes.

This website shines a light on the background of members of NRA leadership, in large part by allowing them to comment on the issues of the day in their own words. It is intended as a resource for those who cherish moderation, civility and principled advocacy in American politics.

FEATURED LEADER

Ted Nugent (Board Member)

Serving on the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association since 1995, Nugent was second only to Oliver North in votes received in the 2010 NRA board elections. In 2008, Nugent was the recipient of $40,000 in fees from the National Rifle Association. An avid supporter of hunting who frequently clashes with animal rights groups, “Uncle Ted” hunts game on his ranches in Texas and Michigan. Nugent has been outspoken on other political issues and has been a vocal opponent of entitlement programs and universal health care. He continues to maintain a rigorous touring schedule and is not shy about sharing his political beliefs on stage.

Sometime in the 1970s, the intellectual right made common cause with populism, and historians such as Rick Perlstein tell us that this is when they surrendered their brains to cultural conservatism.'Nixonland': A Gripping Look at the Nixon Era

1972 - a pivotal election when the Rabid Right Republican hung on the Democratic Party every caricature with which we are now familiar, chief among them as "appeasers soft on defense" and "friend of the able-bodied but lazy welfare negro."

From Nixonland:

The McGovern my classmates sent to resounding defeat in 1972--and the McGovern of their parents' nightmares--was not a real man. He was a spectral creation of the politics of polarization, the ultimate Franklin who haunted the dreams of bitter working-class whites and God-fearing Middle Americans. Various similar specters have haunted national politics ever since. Forty years after 1968, will they ever be laid to rest?

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”― George W. Bush

Sometime in the 1970s, the intellectual right made common cause with populism, and historians such as Rick Perlstein tell us that this is when they surrendered their brains to cultural conservatism.'Nixonland': A Gripping Look at the Nixon Era

1972 - a pivotal election when the Rabid Right Republican hung on the Democratic Party every caricature with which we are now familiar, chief among them as "appeasers soft on defense" and "friend of the able-bodied but lazy welfare negro."

You can bang on and on about Nixon, the 1970s, Perlstein, etc., but that has no bearing on Nugent's correct assertion that Oba is an underhanded, manipulative, dishonest, lying, and incompetent President, who is devoid of any true leadership, and who is injuring America while failing to provide any serious, lasting benefit to this country. Worst President ever and Nugent is simply saying so.

Sometime in the 1970s, the intellectual right made common cause with populism, and historians such as Rick Perlstein tell us that this is when they surrendered their brains to cultural conservatism.'Nixonland': A Gripping Look at the Nixon Era

1972 - a pivotal election when the Rabid Right Republican hung on the Democratic Party every caricature with which we are now familiar, chief among them as "appeasers soft on defense" and "friend of the able-bodied but lazy welfare negro."

You can bang on and on about Nixon, the 1970s, Perlstein, etc., but that has no bearing on Nugent's correct assertion that Oba is an underhanded, manipulative, dishonest, lying, and incompetent President, who is devoid of any true leadership, and who is injuring America while failing to provide any serious, lasting benefit to this country. Worst President ever and Nugent is simply saying so.

And how does that change this?: Obama is an underhanded, manipulative, dishonest, lying, and incompetent President, who is devoid of any true leadership, and who is injuring America while failing to provide any serious, lasting benefit to this country.

Nugent's comments were criticized from politicians of both parties and the media after he appeared at two campaign rallies for Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott last week. The National Rifle Association board member and Outdoor Channel spokesman offered an insincere apology on February 21 for the racist remark, but two days later began demanding apologies of his own on Twitter after discovering that "Obama called blacks mongrels on the View." He will likely offer a similar argument when he appears on tonight's edition of CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront.